That would be cool! And it's relatively easy to do, too until you get to Paint Codes and Springs, with your own web site.

 

Thanks! Yes, it will be fairly easy.

The biggest issue is whether or not to edit out the A, B, E, and little Ranger info. Heretofore I've done that on my site, with the main reason being to make the tables easier to use. Shorter by far, and that's significant when on a web site and scrolling through what was page after page of tables in the catalog. But that may not be easy in this case since the "foreigners" are really integrated into things.

Best example of this is in the Models. There are 9 pages of tables and the pickups don't appear until Page 4, as shown below. I can do some editing, but since the tables have two columns of models, it isn't easy. Thoughts?

 

Yup.

These catalogs were put together before computers were as common as they are today... people had to figure out ways to organize & present this information on paper to the masses.

You are now wanting to go backwards and make it useful using today's technology.

Sure, the multi-column tables can be cut into separate image files... but it's going to be a LOT of tedious work!

Maybe instead of editing out the A E R stuff, just black it out, color over it to take it away; this will allow you to use single-page images which should be less tedious to deal with.

That book can be really irritating to use when decoding cert labels... paint codes are way up at the top (Section 10 or somesuch) and are several pages and their coding methods changed over the years.

Interior colors, I think that's down in the Soft Trim section way down at the bottom someplace near Sheet Metal and Body and are also several more pages.

Springs, same thing... not all cert labels have a place for springs, and in the catalog you have different places for front and rear springs (although they are next to each other 30 & 40 or somesuch). But spring information is QUITE verbose for the earlier years and takes several pages.

Transmissions... manual or automatic? 70 or A70?
Well, we're talking only about decoding the label and not finding parts so that's probably not so relevant.

~~

So, quickly thinking about it, my thoughts would be to first break down this project into pieces and deal with only one thing at a time so it's not toooooo overwhelming.

But of course you might want to pre-first also take a gander at EVERYTHING so you have some general idea of how all this **** is organized and maybe a light bulb over your head will illuminate which might give you ideas on how to deal with stuff.

And instead of removing the AER stuff, just cover it up and use fewer images.

But in all cases it's gonna suck and be tedious... but if you have the time and are willing, gofer it.

~~

I don't think you're gonna find anything in the catalog pertaining to the F & T codes in the DSO section of the labels, I rely on The Gospel According to Bill and Ralph.

 

EDIT: I now think of where the catalog is just plain wrong - e.g. rear axle codes listed with the cert label decoding stuff, don't use those axle codes, hafta use the codes down in the axle identification stuff someplace - section 40 or 50 or wherever... I have no idea offhand where else that happens....

 

Good thoughts. Thanks!

Wow! Just had a wild thought! I have the ability to turn a jpg into a searchable pdf. And, I can edit pdf's. I wonder if I can edit those tables. Not the pictures of the tables, but the actual tables. Hmmmm, probably not directly as the OCR'd text is put in a layer behind the picture, so I'd still have the picture of rows and columns to deal with. But, what if I put all of the information into a spreadsheet. I see a test coming this afternoon during a football game.

But, I agree with you about breaking it down into pieces. That's one of the many beauties of having your own web site - you can add and/or modify easily. I can start with a label that has one link and progress step-wise to having every bit of info linked - if I can find the info. But, the info doesn't have to be from the same source, so if/as we find more info,...

 

There are those unlocked files we have, too.....

 

Could the information be put into an Excel spread sheet?
Using Year/Code/Ratio type of thing? May not be able to cut/paste but think easy to type it out if need be no?


Then again who all could view it if they did not have that version of Excel?
Same could be said fro PDF but you can get free viewers for PDF IIRC.
Cant remember if there are viewers for Excel? Maybe open office type thing?
Just thinking here is all
Dave ----

 

Section 30 for front axle, section 40 for rear axle. Section 50 related to frame/exhaust/springs and etc.

Section 70 = M/T; Section 70A = A/T

Pic FYI:

 

Ok, here's the first try. Only one piece of the large, many-pieced, puzzle. But, you said start easy and go step-wise.

Certification Label: Only does front axle codes at this point, and even then the front axle code image is marked up. But, it works.

 

I will have to try it on the computer upstairs, I'm on the laptop on the kitchen table... clicking the numeral 2 works, a new tab opens up with your picture... in sub-miniature format.

I run a plugin called noscript in my ff browser on this box, but it looks like the only thing I'm disallowing is a domain called quantserve dot com which I believe is some sort of advertising or tracking thing.

Hey, why not try this neat-o trick Bill taught us? Ctrl-+ and see what happens? Well, I maxed it out and the picture became way too blurry to read.

I will try upstairs sometime soon.

 

My first try the picture came in full sized. Send try it was a postage stamp. I'll check it out soon.

 

It's a postage stamp on my upstairs box running chrome with only adblock, no scriptblock. And if it does it to you, too....

 

Ok, try it again. I have both front and rear axle codes working. At least, I think I do. However, I haven't added the 20 pages of front axle part #'s. Yipes!

 

I can copy the info (the un-locked files), but pasting it into Excel doesn't work as it goes into Column A - regardless of what Paste Special format I choose. So, I think including the catalog pages is going to be the way to do it.

However, the front axles take 20 pages, and that would be tough to scroll through. And the soft trim will be worse as the 1986 F-Series is 7 pages long and the Bronco is 5 pages long. So, that's 12 pages for 1986, meaning probably something like 80 pages of soft trim "stuff".

So, I may have to put up a page for Soft Trim that clicking on the box takes you to. Then have a line for each year, with Pickup on a line below that and Bronco below that, and both of those being links. In other words, there'd be a page for 1986 Pickups, which would have 7 catalog pages, and a page for 1986 Broncos with 5 catalog pages.

Thoughts???

 

They both work very nice from my laptop - even the yellow highlights.